I don’t write to be famous, I don’t write to be known, I write because I am and I want to be read. How sad to fill a room with paintings no one sees or play music no one hears. Writing is talking without sound, singing without score and dancing without movement and yet, it is all of them. It is a solitary art conjured from thought and expressed by the need to communicate.

HEAD SLAPS, SPEED BUMPS and LIGHTBULBS, one woman's WTF, oops and ah-ha moments of life.

They were published once, and as every writer knows, once is not enough.




Thursday, May 2, 2013

Waiting



Waiting:
To be born.
To walk, to talk, to run, to ride a bike, to go to school, make friends, get a license and graduate.
We wait for him to call, wait just long enough until we call him. We wait for the perfect job, a job, any job and then we wait for something, someone, somewhere better.
For writers we wait for someone to read our stuff, like our stuff, correct our stuff, we wait until the moment comes when we can look at the page and say we did the words, the story, the telling of it proud. We wait, we write, we wait, we write, we send and click and mail and wait.
We wait for more. We wait for it all because we know it is possible, and we know that, because it happens to those with lesser talent, connections and good will.
We wait for our children to be born, our parents to die and then we wait for our own demise. We wait to be blessed by success before the last of what we wait for comes to be.

What are you waiting for now?

8 comments:

  1. I thought I'd answer my own question first. I'm waiting to hear on three writing fronts, column, article and book. Because of this I am eating too much and sleeping too little. So goes the battle.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm waiting for my big break as a food blogger - thousands to notice and visit often. And of those thousands - well wait, even hundreds would be a good step, they would click madly on ads and I would get a little pocket money. I would feel more independent financially. There would be self validation that my work is good. Probably same as a writer of books, columns and articles. Maybe the light will dawn on someone, somewhere, someday soon and we can both celebrate our achievements - before, before we pass on. With my luck on the day I pass, Harold will get a check in the mail for $200.00!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the whole posthumously thing keeps creeping into my mind. Author dies, kids resurrect novels, world is amazed, kids get rich. Well...they might as well go for it because I'm spending their inheritance now, all dollar-three-ninty-five of it.

      Delete
  3. I'm waiting for my brain to kick into gear, yet again. Can't wait till your wait is over - on all three fronts. Be sure to give us all a shout out...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Donna...thanks. There will be fireworks for sure.
      About your brain, how can it work if your feet hurt?
      Be kind to yourself and the words will come. Believe it.

      Delete
  4. I'm waiting for the time to come to get two other degrees I want and to spend a good chunk of my time writing. (Degrees take money and the writing takes too much time from my family...so I wait until the kids are older and my nest becomes empty. I will need something to focus on at that point.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't wait, do it now.
      Education, writing, doesn't mean you have to trade family for what you want for yourself. It is a good thing for children to see you quest for a better you. I took fifteen years off writing and if I had it to do over again I would have kept my hand in more than I did. I am so playing catch-up and hope I have enough time left to achieve what I want to achieve.
      Sorry about spouting advice. Sometimes I just can't help myself.
      As I have often told my two amazing daughters...you can have it all...just not all at the same time.

      Delete
    2. A quick addendum.
      Agents and publishers are quick to volunteer there is no ageism in publishing, that it’s all about the project at hand. This is so in some cases BUT the dirty little secret only a few will mention is that some agents and especially some publishers, while looking at the whole career, which includes the future, will chose the author who best serves them long-term. I know they say it’s all about the book, all about the project and all about the story but if you are an older empty nester finally finding the time to write your career may run out of time.
      Mary Higgins Clark, a single mother of five found the time to write. I don’t recommend that anyone use family as an excuse to put off that which YOU do so well. You are good, use your ability, don’t shelve it.
      Okay I’ll shut up now.

      Delete